


under your scars

by liquidcourage



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 00:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19878613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidcourage/pseuds/liquidcourage
Summary: do we make sense? i think we do.but would you still be you, if we weren't we?





	under your scars

**Author's Note:**

> honestly this whole thing is strongly inspired by the song "under your scars" by godsmack. definitely give it a listen if you're a zadr fan or if you just like soundtracks with your fics. (it got me back on my invader zim bullshit so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯)

arguing is what they do. it’s natural to them, has been from day one. dib snarls, shouting as he pushes at zim. “is that what you want? huh? is it? is it?”

“yes, that’s what zim wants! i was very clear on this; is there no more room in that gargantuan head of yours for  _ listening _ ?” zim pushes back, maroon eyes narrowing in frustration.

“hey! my head’s not big!”

dib doesn’t even remember what they are fighting about anymore. it’s not about who’s wrong -- it’s more about the thrill of it all rather than whatever they were on about, anyways -- that’s the fun of it; testing each other’s limits.

zim starts ranting and dib shuts him up with a kiss. 

it feels right -- it feels like home.

* * *

zim curls his arms around dib’s  _ fragile _ human frame. such weak, pathetic beings humans are -- but dib is marginally better than the others. more than marginally, really -- not that zim is likely to say such a thing out loud.

irkens do not really need sleep -- and a good thing too, for this ‘sleeping’ leaves you quite vulnerable; zim does not understand why humans are so relaxed by the thought of sleeping. it’s really quite foolish, but no matter. zim will protect his dib-thing while he sleeps. 

dib mumbles something incoherent and zim pulls him closer, breathing in deep. dib smells like human. 

the smell doesn’t disgust him like it did before.

* * *

some irkens came and took zim away to some far off planet. he told dib not to worry about it in true zim fashion -- "zim wants dinner ready for him by eight, pig-smelly!" and off he was whisked. dib knew that was the alien's way of saying he'd be home soon.

but then zim wasn't home by eight. he wasn't even home soon. he wasn't home at all.

he watched the sky for any signs of zim, listened for transmissions, but there was nothing.

_ come back down, you stupid alien -- call my name, give me something, anything,  _ dib wanted to scream. but he remained silent, more and more despondent as time went by.

he spent a lot of time at zim's base with gir. gir seemed aware of zim's absence to some extent, but he carried on as normal, forgetful little thing that he was. 

everything felt broken.

* * *

zim knew things looked bad. he'd caused quite a lot of explosions in the past. apparently, he was, in fact,  _ not _ the hero of impending doom i -- a fact that shocked him to discover. 

but more than that, the tallest and the control brains appeared unhappy with him.

zim wondered if he would be home by eight for dinner.

zim wondered if he would be home at all.

and then the control brains spoke, and zim truly knew fear then. 

"irken zim is a  _ defective _ . his pak will be recoded and reset, thus repairing this issue."

before zim can speak, data cables swoop down and connect to his pak.

"no, wait -- this is a mistake -- " zim wails.

unbidden, thoughts of dib spring to his mind. his human. zim knows he won't remember dib soon, so there is no point in thinking of the human, but he can hardly help himself. 

"dib," he whispers, before his mind goes blissfully blank as his time on earth is erased.

* * *

impending doom iii has the best of the best of the irken invader recruits sent down to conquer planets. and at the top of his class? irken elite invader zim. 

"invader zim, you've been assigned to the planet… earth."

zim nods and takes his assignment sheet. the tallest seem amused, for some reason zim doesn't understand. looking down at the sheet and the drawing of the planet causes some strange feeling in his squeedily spooch.

he wonders if he is getting sick.

* * *

it's been years, and dib had given up all hope of zim returning.

despite that, he still stayed at zim's base more often than not, and gir had become something of a constant in his life. the computer talked to them sometimes, but usually only in a conversational way when he was bored. 

today, though, today was different. 

"master has breached the atmosphere of this planet."

**Author's Note:**

> anyways this thing is the first fic i've finished in like. a year and a half. i've got 10000 drafts in my google docs for chaptered fics and vague oneshot ideas but this was the only thing i've finished and i literally wrote it in like twenty minutes and didn't proofread at all so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> it's an open ending for now, but i see it going one of two ways, with the good end -- dib eventually gets zim back to being zim, or the bad end -- zim kills dib and takes over earth. i may write one or both of those ends one day if anyone is into that. who knows? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> for the time being, take it as you want.
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://ezwriting.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
